He loves to talk space exploration and a campaign stop on Florida’s space coast provided the perfect opportunity.

“By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be American,” Gingrich said, drawing applause from the crowd. “I will, as president, encourage the introduction of the northwest ordinance for space to put a marker down that we want Americans to think boldly about the future and we want Americans to go out and study hard and work hard and together, we’re going to unleash the American people to build the country we love.”

It’s just the kind of Gingrich big-think for which he has been ridiculed by others in the GOP field, including Mitt Romney. But Wednesday’s speech — which Gingrich himself called “grandiose” — could actually resonate politically in Florida, where space exploration is good politics 14 miles away from Cape Canaveral. The space coast, home to many NASA employees, has been struggling lately as the space agency launched its last shuttle in July, and President Barack Obama canceled the lunar landing program in 2010.

But Gingrich wants to bring it all back, and more.

In his remarks, Gingrich dismissed the notion that his ideas are over the top, pointing to previous presidents and inventors who fueled changes in technology.

“I was attacked the other night for being grandiose,” he said. “I would just want you to note: Lincoln standing at Council Bluffs was grandiose. The Wright Brothers standing at Kitty Hawk were grandiose. John F. Kennedy was grandiose. I accept the charge that I am grandiose and that Americans are instinctively grandiose.”

He added, “Does that mean I’m visionary? You betcha.”

When working a particular state, Gingrich frequently talks about local issues — like ethanol in Iowa, a power line in New Hampshire and an interstate project in South Carolina — but Wednesday’s speech gave him the opportunity to sink his teeth into a pet topic.

“I want you to help me in Florida and across the country so you can someday say you were there the day it was announced that we’d have commercial space, moon colony and moving toward Mars,” he said.

Gingrich laid out a multifaceted effort to restart the space race, including devoting 10 percent of NASA’s budget to prize money for inventions to speed up manned travel to the moon and Mars. He said he wants the country to be able to launch multiple spacecraft daily and partner with private industry to eliminate bureaucracy and make development cheaper.

Gingrich even envisions a moon state.

“When we have 13,000 Americans living on the moon, they can petition to become a state,” he said, drawing laughter from the crowd.

“I wanted every young American to say to themselves, I could be one of those 13,000. I could be a pioneer. I need to study science and math and engineering. I need to learn how to be a technician. I can be a part of building a bigger, better future. I can actually go out and live the future, looking at the solar system and being part of a generation of courageous people who do something big and bold and heroic,” Gingrich said.

But Gingrich’s space fantasies don’t stop at the moon. He wants to see trips to Mars by 2020.

“By the end of 2020, we will have the first continuous propulsion system in space capable of getting to Mars in a remarkably short time because I am sick of being told we have to be timid and I am sick of being told we have to be limited in technologies that are 50 years old,” he said.